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Huntington Library, RS 8. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), II, pp. 103–107 [in part; misdated 22 August 1800]; Adolfo Cabral (ed.), Robert Southey: Journals of a Residence in Portugal 1800–1801 and a Visit to France 1838 (Oxford, 1960), pp. 105–107 [in part; misdated 22 August 1800].
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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In the long space of three months which have elapsed since I wrote to you – (or rather four!) – you will expect that I
have done much. in truth I have not been idle. For the great Historywhat documents to search, &
where to seek them. the public library-books are not removeable, & I, like all the English, am driven to
the cool retirement of Cintra. I have the general facts clearly in my memory. I think a fair
& accurate opinion of the chief personages, differing very considerably from their received characters, & a map of the method
to be pursued. the ground is well manured, & the seed is in. I speak the language, not indeed grammatically, but fluently &
Portugueze from a familiar voice, is almost as intelligible to me as English. I know the progress of their language, step by step,
& have written materials towards the literary history.
But Thalaba.King
George, which sailed between Falmouth and Lisbon.& <or> two pocket volumes in a fortnight. 100 £ I will have for
500 4to copies. 130 for 1000 of the smaller size.his rump stakes, I have a right
to my share.
Our house here stands in a lemon garden of somewhat less than half an acre. its fruit usually sells for twenty
moidores. this year only <owing> to its failure it produced only ten. these orchards you see are
wonderfully productive, but they require more attention than any English crops. they are watered regularly: here there is a large tank
in every garden, whence the water is conveyed by little channels, which the man conducts round the roots of every tree, loosening the
soil with a hoe. by this the leaves as they fall are sooner mingled with the soil, & afford a constant manure. wages are as high as
eighteen-pence a day, with wine. the price of bread of course can differ little from its price in England, all
other provisions are rather dearer, in some respect owing to actual scarcity, still more to the paper money, as every tradesman will
have his profit upon the discount. The Wine owes its advance to the enormous taxes in England. As the English tax it so highly, said
the Government here, we will tax it too, & they laid on the very moderate duty of a six-&-thirty per pipe. if people will give
75 £ a pipe, said the Porto Merchants, no doubt they will give 80, & we will have our profit. they therefore laid on the five,
& are making fortunes. More wine is exported than before the new duties, because the excise to which it is
subject so materially checks the home-brewed. still much is so manufactured – by an accident I happened to know
that one merchant, made his own Lisbon. the Law you allude to was made by Pombal,& they have <never> made one
dividend. where goes the money? there is a fund for lighting & cleaning the city. there are no lamps & no scavengers.
where goes the fund?
Every officer, every soldier, after the service of a certain number of years, has a right to a pension, in itself
trifling – but settled upon his family for several lives, & by court-interest easily perpetuated. here then is a growing expence. a
number of Emigrants are saddled upon the court – this is a new source of waste: they even pay an Embassador from the Pretender of
France.white side? indeed I can scarcely se[MS obscured] it. the Portugueze are certainly getting their own trade
which till lately was exclusively managed by foreigners. their soldiers & sailors have washed off one coating of dirt since they
have seen so many English. But – the great colony must be seperated – it is too vigorous a branch to hang on a rotten trunk – & I
may live to have as whole & finished a subject as the Historian would find in Venice.
The number of Monastics decreases. not from any dearth of laziness or fanaticism, but because the revenues are now not
equal to the support of the original number. Sometimes the Monks desert. in that case the Soldiers of God & the Virgin pursue him.
they took one poor fellow at work in a Garden where for three months he had been usefully employed, & enjoying freedom. In an
evening ride lately, we passed a Portugueze party, as riotously loud as a company of drunken Oxonians, they had a priest with them,
& in every joke we heard the name of Father Antonio. my servant told me this Father Antonio was an excellent Priest & the best
Confessor in the world, nobody was better at Mass – but out of church he was the greatest fool that could be, & only invited an
object of ridicule. The Priests however, not content with [MS torn] the people, seems to delight in
laughing at them, & insulting their credulity. When the late Kingt.
George was actually put into the bed with him. here is a fine soil of folly, [MS torn] plentiful crop do the Friars reap! some little
good they do in return, they are good landlords, & the church lands are the only lands that are tolerably cultivated. the ruin of
Spain & Portugal is the xxxx fashion that all the wealthy have of residing wholly in the
metropolis, where they spend to the utmost, vex their tenants, & never pay their debts. – Portugal you say must have bad roads. it will be very difficult to make them good. in winter the very heavy rains wash away all the smaller
parts & leave only the larger stones, in summer the sun dries them up & the wind sweeps the stones bare. Brentford-stones
I lack society sadly. the people here know much of their own business, very little of the country they live in, & nothing of any thing else – except cards. My Uncle indeed is a man of extensive knowledge, & here is one family of which the master is a man of some science, & where I can open my flood-gates. I want you & Davy & a newspaper – & bread & butter & a green field for me & the horse. it would do his old English heart as much good as it would mine. But I have ample & pleasant employment – curiosity ever on the hunt – a situation the most beautiful that I have ever seen, & a climate for which Nature seems to have destined me, only blessed be God! she dropt me the other side the Bay.
I am apprehensive that when Thalaba arrives you may not be in town, & shall therefore send it to Danvers, who if you are there, will immediately forward it. ample directions will
accompany it, enough to preclude all possibility of error blunders. the occupation is pleasant but I am
eager to wash my hands clean of all that could have been done in England.
By the King George I expect Alfred,
Of the Beguinages I will say something to the purpose a month hence